COURSE OUTLINE

Kevin Knoblock's 7-Hour Documentary Film Class Workshop offers the most comprehensive and professional full day class on the art, craft, and business of creating documentaries. All levels of professionals can benefit from this class.
Be prepared to learn secrets Knoblock has accumulated from writing, producing and directing hundreds of hours of award-winning non-fiction content.
Here's a sample of what is offered in Knoblock's 7-Hour Documentary Film Class Workshop:

HOUR ONE

What kind of documentary are you making?

Documentary Genres and Styles.

How do I start? Identify your passion project, the one you must make.

How to organize your story. What will you be shooting and where? Who will you interview?

What else is needed, either in original footage or archival material, to make this film? The secret to finding great personal stories

HOUR TWO

Getting your project funded. Understanding budgets.

The $10,000 documentary, the $100,000 documentary, the $500,000 documentary.

The $2,000,000 documentary. What do you get at each price point?

Pre-production overview. How to refine your lists of interviews and b roll.

Using archival footage. When to use it and how much will it cost?

Learn how to develop the best questions for your interview subjects – questions that will reveal the most about your topic.

Assembling your crew, and ways to save

HOUR THREE

How to create realistic production schedules.

Equipment. Which cameras to use. What can you afford at each price point?

How to book shoots: talent or interviews, crews, locations Knowing what to shoot for most effective/convincing sequences.

Be open to the story twisting and turning. Making documentaries is like building a house, but one where the blueprint is fluid and ever changing. It’s also like creating a sculpture based on plans that can and in fact should change as the raw material is created, or captured.

Production insurance, talent and location releases.

HOUR FOUR

How to shoot interviews.

How to pick settings and develop the ‘look’ of your documentary.

Basic lighting and audio recording techniques and tips.

When to use tripods, sliders, jibs or go hand-held.

How to best organize your interviews, b-roll, and purchased clips and stills for your scripting.

How do you know when you are done shooting?

Do you have the story?

Consider and reconsider your budget.

HOUR FIVE

Documentary Screen Writing. Before production or after?

Point of view. What is it and how does a filmmaker assert it?

When to use voice over’s, and when not to.

Script formatting. Dramatic development.

Three Act structure.

Writing ‘blind’ (writing in advance before all interviews come in when facing a deadline).